Jide Osuntokun
There is a heated debate about when it is safe to lift the lockdown imposed on several countries including Nigeria caused by the novel coronavirus. This is because the people the various governments in the world are trying to protect are protesting against the lockdowns which are denying them their means of livelihood. This is particularly severe in the United States where close to 35 million people, that is about 10% of the country ‘s population, have been thrown out of their jobs following the lockdown of the economy. In Nigeria where in the best of times, there is massive unemployment and where millions of people particularly in the urban centres survive on hustling and daily paid jobs, there is already some kind of urban disquiet if not outright rebellion. Our people are not taking kindly to any policy, however well-intentioned, that would deny them the means of economic survival. The upshot of this is the growing divide between the knowledge elite and the ordinary and not so ordinary people about the correct way to deal with the problem caused by the coronavirus. The elite and upper middle class, armed with their technological gizmos can work from their homes and their children can also study online, but the vast majority of the people even in the developed world do not have the luxury of their homes being wired up for the new world of working and studying from home. Even some of the elite are complaining of boredom and lack of concentration because of their restless children who demand attention while their parents are “working” from home. The sea change in lifestyle imposed suddenly on people is creating serious domestic problems erupting into domestic violence in the gun-crazy United States and in other places where husbands are running away from their children and wives!
This situation is now being exploited by rival politicians in the Western world particularly in the United States where some people are glibly saying the medicine is killing the patients. President Donald J. Trump has weaponized the issue to suit his campaign for re-election in November. He has been fuelling the growing rebellion against governors, who to protect their people, have locked down their states. Trump has been calling for the people of such states to liberate their states as if the governors were their enemies holding them in bondage. The presidential call has been sweet music in the ears of those on the lunatic fringe who in the case of Michigan State invaded the local parliament with blazing guns and bazookas. The fear of violence and the serious dent on the local economies of the states have forced most of the states in America to partially or totally open their states for business. The most populous states like New York and California have been blackmailed into opening certain sectors and areas of their states to business. The argument over the appropriateness of the time to open up has been marred by the politics of presidential election in November. President Trump is accusing the Democrats who control such populous and strategic states as New York, Illinois and California of shutting down their states to portray him in bad light in order to facilitate the election of his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden. Even in countries where there are no elections, politicians have turned the new coronavirus pandemic into convenient political games. In Southeast Asian countries of Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand which have escaped from the deleterious impact of the viral pandemic, business have opened up more or less. European countries just coming out of its serious impact have also been following suit. All this is making it difficult to have a rational discussion of what measures to take to confront this serious medical problem.
Right from the beginning of the viral onslaught, the Scandinavian country of Sweden refused to close down its schools and to lockdown its economy. This is on the grounds that doing so may create unintended consequences such as mental problems arising from unemployment and lack of money and claustrophobia for the home-bound children. There have however been more fatalities in Sweden than in neighbouring states of Denmark, Norway and Finland which took opposite direction by locking down their states. The economy of Sweden is however not as damaged as those of her neighbours. This however is not a conclusive evidence of the appropriateness of the Swedish model. The British and the Russians which prevaricated for sometimes have now suffered horrendous fatalities compared to the quick response of Germany which immediately locked down the country at the first news of the coronavirus pandemic.
People are now asking whether the impact of this viral pandemic outbreak has been exaggerated by the media or not. Up to now, about 315,000 souls have been lost globally which is still a fraction of a global population of over six billion people and less than the number of those who died in Nigeria from the Spanish influenza of 1918-1919. This relatively small figure may be due to the lockdown of the global economy. The loss of one soul is of course regretted. During the influenza outbreak of 1918 -1919, the number of those killed ranged between 30 million and 50 million in the world. Every year the number of people who die from flu in the United States alone from October to May is in the region of between 25,000 and 62,000. This is despite the availability of flu shots. This is why many rational people are beginning to say the world may have to live with this Covid-19 just as it is living with flu virus, Ebola virus and HIV and other viral diseases. The vaccines that are eagerly expected will hopefully temper the seriousness of future outbreak of Covid-19. This sounds cruel but it is a realistic way out.
In Nigeria the outbreak of this viral pandemic should be a call for action. The African continent has largely been spared of the horror of this plague at least for now. This is the time to put our house in order. When I was young, we had one or more infectious diseases hospitals in the old Western Nigeria. It is now obvious that each state needs a more sophisticated infectious and viral diseases hospital with modern equipment and therapeutic facilities. We really need to reorganize our health practice through a compulsory and strengthening of whatever putative health insurance that we have. We need to so organize our medical practice around the concept of each person reporting to his family’s doctor who will keep his or her record and the kind of treatment he or she is receiving. General hospitals will therefore not be the first port of call every sick person will report to. The teaching hospitals at the apex of the medical architecture will therefore remain teaching and referral hospitals for serious ailments. If Cuba, the small Caribbean island can provide medical cover for all its people, I see no reason why we cannot do the same in our much-abused and misgoverned country. If this lumbering behemoth of a country cannot and would not do what is in its interest, shouldn’t we take a second look at the structure of the country that is militating against optimal performance?
The time has come when we have to put on our thinking caps and re-examine the policy of lockdown which, I dare say, is not being obeyed in most parts of the country except by force. We need to educate our people about the need for hygiene and cleanliness and the need to wash our hands as well as not sneezing and coughing on each other and spitting in the public. While on this, we cannot ask people to wash their hands without providing tap water in public places. We need to modernize our markets away from the present bedlam where people are literally falling on each other to shop for what to eat. The government must seriously begin to intervene in the economy to create jobs and if needs be, move out of the urban squalor into agricultural settlements, jobless miscreants roaming about the streets making the job of creating clean environment near impossible. The current situation of hustling for a living in the urban areas is not sustainable and should be discouraged. Our people should not have to choose between death from hunger or coronavirus. People should be able to work and maintain all the protocols against coronavirus such as physical distancing, isolation of infected persons, hand washing and medical consultation.
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